FSU President and Law School Dean Create Scholarship to Attract Historically Underrepresented Students

Press Date

September 14, 2016

TALLAHASSEE — Florida State University College of Law Dean Erin O. O’Connor and her husband, Michael L. O’Connor, have pledged $50,000 to the College of Law. The gift will be used to establish the FSU Friends Opportunity Scholarship, which will provide scholarships to students who are from groups historically underrepresented in the legal profession. Each recipient of a scholarship will be known as an FSU Friends Opportunity Scholar. FSU President John Thrasher, a 1972 graduate of the College of Law, and his wife, Jean Thrasher, have also pledged $50,000 to the law school to fund the FSU Friends Opportunity Scholarship.

“It is our hope that other alumni and friends of the law school will contribute to the scholarship fund and that these gifts will help us attract the best and brightest students to Florida State,” said President Thrasher.

“FSU Law has very successfully pursued a social justice mission to provide affordable and high-quality legal education to all segments of our society, including minority students, those from economically disadvantaged communities, and others historically underrepresented in the Bar. It is imperative that we continue to strive to serve our mission of diversity and inclusion in every way that we can,” said Dean O’Connor. “I am extremely grateful to President Thrasher for joining me in the creation of this scholarship fund.”

O’Connor became dean of the law school in July 2016. Thrasher assumed the university presidency in November 2014.